The Salvation Army bell ringers are out again with their red kettles and friendly greetings, but they\u2019re not having much luck filling the kettles this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur kettle (revenues) are down in the South King County area,\u201d said Lonnie Franklin, Western Washington field representative for the Salvation Army.<\/p>\n
Franklin attributed some of the losses to the poor economy, and some to the fact that more shoppers today use credit or debit cards instead of cash for holiday purchases, leaving them no change to toss in the kettles.<\/p>\n
In South King County in particular, Salvation Army lost a significant source of fundraising revenue when the downtown Kent Kmart decided not to let bell ringers come to its store this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cKmart was always good for about $4,000 in that area, so we\u2019re suffering,\u201d said Franklin.<\/p>\n
The kettle funds raised in Kent support year-round services offered by the Kent Salvation Army center. Those services include emergency assistance to families struggling to make rent or basic utility payments, as well as temporary lodging for domestic violence victims.<\/p>\n
This time of year, the agency\u2019s services also include a little extra help for the holidays: toys and food for families in need through the South King County Christmas Assistance Program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, we weren\u2019t able to afford to purchase toys, so what we\u2019ve opted to do this year is buy gift cards,\u201d Franklin said of the Kent center. \u201cWe\u2019re giving out gift cards for food and for toys to people who are coming in for assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The gift cards should cover the cost of one toy and some extra groceries at Fred Meyer.<\/p>\n
Franklin noted that the Kent Salvation Army will have some toys on hand at the center to give out last minute. Most of those toys come from donations made at local Bartell Drugs and Fred Meyer stores, which serve as collection points for the Salvation Army toy drive.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we will do is, for families that come in late looking for Christmas assistance … we will have toys available,\u201d Franklin said. \u201cBut we never get enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deadline to sign up to receive help through the holiday program in Kent is Dec. 16. Franklin said the Kent\u2019s Salvation Army center will continue accepting toys for the program through Dec. 18. Toys for children ages 3 through 12 are especially needed.<\/p>\n
To donate to the Salvation Army\u2019s Christmas program, bring a new, unwrapped toy to the donation barrels at any Bartell Drugs or Fred Meyer store, or drop off toys at the Kent Salvation Army center, 1250 Central Avenue S., Suite 245.<\/p>\n
For more information, call the center at 253-852-4983.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Salvation Army bell ringers are out again with their red kettles and friendly greetings, but they\u2019re not having much luck filling the kettles this year. \u201cOur kettle (revenues) are down in the South King County area,\u201d said Lonnie Franklin, Western Washington field representative for the Salvation Army. Franklin attributed some of the losses to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":13987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13986"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13986"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}